For the Sake of Friendship
by LostAngel2
Summary: When Lash is kidnaped Speed is forced to call upon an old friend who might just become more then a friend. But with time running out will Speed be able to save Lash in time?
1. Pictures of Long Ago

A/N : This is my first Sky High fanfic so feel free to tell me things I miss. I have planed this to me a Speed/OC but I have coincided making it Speed/Lash so feel free to tell me your thoughts.

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**For the Sake of Friendship**

_Pictures of Long Ago_

"Isn't this girl a little young for you?" My best friend asks playfully from his spot on the floor where he was digging though the boxes in my closet hoping to find his striped shirt. I lean down to see him holding a picture of a small brunette girl, not even in her teen years, standing in front of a lake waving at the camera. I smile remembering the girl and the time I shared with her.

"That's Kate." I say with a goofy grin on my face.

"Who?" Lash asks looking up at me, "I've known you my whole life. You never mentioned a girl named Kate!"

I smile at how upset Lash gets over this. "Remember when we were ten and I went to camp." He nods, "Well Kate went there with me. She was my friend at the camp."

"How come you never to me about her?" He asks looking up at me softly. I know that look, I've seen it many times. The look where he feels upset, but won't say anything about it.

"I didn't think it was important. Plus when I came home you were to busy trying to convince me never to leave home that I forgot about it." I say sliding off my bed and onto the ground.

"Did you love her?" He asks handing me the picture. I laugh.

"Lash I was ten! I still thought girls had cooties." I exclaim making him smile.

"Well I don't. Did you like her as a friend?" He asks after he stops laughing.

I think for a moment before saying, "Yeah, she was cool. She could phase though things, which was funny when she would lean against the wall and get frustrated and fall though."

He smiles, "What happened to her?"

"We left camp and I never called her."

"Wait," He says clearly thinking, "You knew a girl who liked you, gave you her number, and you never called her?"

"When you put it like that it makes me seem like a creep."

"No Speed, it makes you seem like a loser." He laughs. I reach onto my bed and grab my pillow which I throw at him. He just grins and tosses it back creating a new game.

It had been a few months since we got out of jail. I don't know why we went along with Gwen; oh yeah, she blackmailed us. She found our weakness, well more like Lash's weakness and fed off it dragging me along for the ride. But once I told Principal Powers our little story she made us a promise to help us.

My father was a super hero with the power to control electricity. He met my mother at a bookstore. He told me he had never seen a woman as beautiful as my mother. They got married and I was born. I can't recall a time I didn't know Lash. I wouldn't be surprised it I was at the hospital when he was born. You see my father and his mother often partnered up to fight crime. Like Lash and I they had been friends for most of their life.

One night when I was eight I remember my father got a call to go save the day once again but he didn't go because my mother was sick and he was taking care of her. I remember him calling Lash's mom and telling her to go without him. That was the last time we ever heard from her. She died that night at the hands of a villain named Dr. Venom. Lash was never the same after his mother's death.

Lash slowly withdrew from the world including me. When we would play together he wouldn't laugh or smile but I knew he was glad with my company by how on the way home he would rest his head on my shoulders. I was his rock and he knew I would always be there for him and I knew he would always be there for me.

When we where nine we got our powers. I got mine first. He would laugh as I would run around my backyard at top speed as the leafs from the tree would blow off. When he got his, he would reach up into the apple tree and pick up apples from the top while we sat under the tree reading our comic books. But I began to notice cuts and bruise on Lash's face and his new style of wearing long sleeves in the middle of summer.

When I went off to camp when I was ten I noticed the Lash had tears in his eyes when we were saying goodbye. When I got home, he threw himself into me and begged me never to leave him again. At the time I didn't get why Lash was so nervous but as I grew up I understood better. But as a kid I just assured him I would never leave him, which seem to clam him down.

When I was twelve, my parents both died. My mother was captured by Dr. Venom and when my father came to save him he killed my mother and then my father. I cried myself to sleep for a month, but Lash was at my house everyday cooking or cleaning or telling me that everything would be okay. I went to court and was granted the ability to live on my own thanks to all the money I received in my parent's death.

I was fourteen and we had just started when everything I had come to think about Lash in the previous four years changed momentously. It was about midnight when I heard a knocking on the door. I opened it ready to curse whatever it was that woke me up when I saw Lash leaning against the wall of the doorway. Bruises in the shapes if fingers around his neck, a cut on his forehead the was dripping blood, both eyes where black and his soft eyes were unfocused and spilling out tears.

I wrapped my arm around his waste causing him to gasp and I half dragged half-carried him inside. I lay him on the couch as he cried that he didn't want to go to the hospital and that he had no where else to go. I fix up his wounds the best that I could as he told me that his father had done this since he gained his powers. He told me that his father resented him because he had powers like his mother.

It was then I knew I had to get my friend out of that house. I came up with a plan and Lash, though reluctant and scared, agree. We told his father that I had super strength (He didn't know what my power was) and that if he didn't want me to pound his face into the ground that he would let Lash live with me but if anyone asks that Lash still lived at home. Afraid, his father agreed and that is how Lash because even more like my brother.

How Gwen found out about this little arrangement I don't know but she did. She cornered us in an empty hallway one day and told me that if we didn't go along with her little plan she would tell Lash's father about how I had super speed not super strength as my power. We both knew Lash's father would kill him if he found out about this. We had no choice but to agree to help her.

Which is why, when we ended up in jail, I requested a conference with Principal Powers. I could tell when she showed up that she had already made up her mind that I was guilty. But when I told her about Lash's abusive dad and how Gwen blackmailed us into helping her Principal Power's face seemed to grow darker and darker. Eventually she told me that we had the wrong approach to the situation but she understood why we followed Gwen. She promised that she would help us get out of jail and back in school. But more importantly she would not tell Lash's father the truth.

I smile as I hear the gentle breaths of Lash who, once again, fell asleep on my floor. Even though his room is right next door, he has a habit of falling asleep on my floor. I think he likes to know that someone will be there when he wakes up. That and he knows that I won't wake him up and send him back to his room. I drape an extra blanket from my bed over him and smile as I turn out the light.

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A/N: Well there's the first chapter. I would love to know what you allthink of it...reviews are nice motivation for new chapters! 


	2. Broke Down Home

Disclaimer (This goes for chapter 1 too, cause I forgot it): I do not own Sky High...if I did it would star Lash, Speed, and Warren!

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**For the Sake of Friendship**

_Broke Down Home_

"Is it me or is it cold in here?" Lash asks walking out of my room with his arms wrapped tightly around his body. I smile from the table where I'm already eating breakfast.

"It's just you!" I laugh as he sits down across from me. He stretches his arms in the kitchen and they come back holding a carton of milk and a box of cereal. "Couldn't you have just go it before you sat down?"

He shrugs and lays his head on the table. "I'm so sleepy."

"That's what you get for sleeping on the floor." I say smugly as I pour the cereal into my bowl.

"You could have woke me up." He mutters from the spot at the table.

"You would have just woke up, been angry, then lay your head back down and go to sleep." I point out. He lifts his arm and flips me before his hand lands back down on the table with a plop.

"Go suck something." He mutters back. "You got to go to work today?"

"Yeah, but only for a few hours. I just have to finish up the inventory." I say referring to my part time job at the comic bookstore. "Are you going to work today?"

"No, I'm going to call in sick. I really feel like shit." He says looking up at me to check to see if that was okay. His chocolate brown eyes look bloodshot and he looks almost like a ghost.

"Yeah, you would end up scaring away the customers." I say trying to make light of the situation. He just rolled his eyes.

"Well I think your ugliness is rubbing off on me," He says weakly.

"I better get going. The sooner I finish the sooner I can get a nice vacation." I say. I go over to the couch and grab my jacket off the floor. With two guys living together we try to keep the house clean but we always end up with our jackets on the floor because we knocked over the coat rack in the middle of a practice duel or the table will be litter with junk food and leftover soda's because we stayed up till four and were too tired to clean up.

I walk to the door and pause for a moment before going back over to the table and place my hand on his forehead. He was burning up. I look at him and say, "get some sleep your becoming as hotheaded as Peace."

Lash grunts and grabs an orange from the table and tosses it as hard as he can at me. Because he's sick and weak the orange hitting my forehead doesn't hurt as much but the juice from the orange sprays everywhere. I reach up and wipe my forehead. I reach down and pick up the orange and chuck it at the back of his head causing him to knock his head against the table. I say, "You know it wouldn't kill you to be nice."

"Lash I'm . . . " I trail off as I look around the house which is a complete mess. The tables are turned up. There are movies and CD's spread out all across the floor. There are pots and pans on the tile. The dining room table is on its side and the chairs are thrown aside. Frames from the wall lay on the ground the glass cracked contacting the smiling people in the photograph. I lean down and pick up the one closest to me. I was Lash and I at age six sitting on Santa's lap.

"Lash!" I call out to him running around the house trying to find him and creating a miniature whirlwind in its place. I look in the kitchen, his room, the bathroom and he is still know where to be found. I sigh as I dash into my room hoping to find him curled up on my floor or sleeping in my bed with the excuse that it was closer. I walk in to find nothing. I sigh but notice a small black video tape on my bed.

I grab the tape and rush to play it in the living room not bothering to consider that it could be bomb or something. I toss the video that was inside of the play over by the fireplace and hear it land with a crunch. I but Lash got bored and though it would be fun to mess with me. That was it. I grab the remote and hit play expecting to see Lash walk onto the screen and saying turn around.

"Hello Speed, missing something? Or should I say are you missing someone?" A voice of a high pitch female came on as Gwen came into view. I feel my knuckles tighten. All I can think of is how did she get out of jail and how long will I be in jail for killing her?

"Don't worry he's not dead, yet." She laughs as the camera turns from her and to a blindfolded Lash who is tied to a chair. My heart crashes and I feel sick as I notice a small trickle of blood running down the side of his face. The camera turns back to Gwen who is wearing a very satisfied look on her face. I would love to knock the look right off her face and I fully plan on it.

"Now we all know I couldn't get out of jail on my own," She says as I feel blood began to drip down my arm from the cuts my nails are making. "So I would like to introduce my new partner, Dr. Venom."

My heart stop beating for a moment at the sound of the name. The thought of my best friend, my brother, at the hands of a murderer breaks me apart. I feel tears falling out of my eyes but I try to keep a stoic look but I know I'm failing. The camera pans to a man about fifty with gray hair and green eyes that had a psychotic glare to them. He just grins and pulls out a leather as he walks over to Lash with a sadistic grin.

"You must not tell the police or any adult we were here. If you do tell, well, your friend here will die. It would a pity for you to have to lose a mother, a father, and a best friend at my hands. You're a smart kid. I'm sure you'll figure out where we are soon. If you don't, it might be too late." He says as he raises his whip and brings it down hard across Lash's back.

Once, twice, three times Lash screams for me before he falls unconscious and the tape goes black. I cry like I cried when my parents died, I cry like when I found I Lash had been abused by his father, only this time when I'm crying I don't have Lash to hold onto. I don't have Lash here to smile through his tears and tell me everything will work out. I don't have that reassurance that everything will be fine.

I cry for hours as I go between finding a plan of action and thinking of Lash crying out my name as he's being whipped. I decide to go in my room and see if Dr. Venom and Gwen left anything behind for me to find. I go into my room and find nothing except for the picture of Kate that Lash pulled out last night. I reach down and turn in over staring at the phone number carefully written onto the back.

That was it! I could call Kate. She would help me. She told me if I ever needed her help she would come help me. And she wasn't an adult, she was seventeen, technically still a minor. What could it hurt to call her? The worst she could do was say no or hang up on me. It wasn't like I had any other idea's.

I reach over to the side of my bed and take the phone off the receiver and quickly punch in the number on the back. One ring, two rings, three rings, four rings and then, "Hello?"

"Hi, um, can I speak to Kate?" I ask nervously.

"This is her, who is this?" she asks puzzled.

"Um, I don't know if you remember me, but this is Speed from camp."I say shyly.

"Speed!" she squeals, "of course I remember you. You were the sweetest guy in Cabin 12. I heard about your parents. I was going to call but, I was kind of, well yeah."

I blush but then I think back to the reason I called and tears start to fall again, "I get it. I'm sorry to call you like this, seven years later, but I remember you said if I ever need you help just to call you. I wanted to know if that offer still stands?"

"What's wrong?" Kate asks obviously worried.

"It's my friend. He was kidnaped by the same person that killed my parents! They have him and I can't go to the police or anything like that or they're going to kill him!" I cry.

"Lash was kidnaped?" she asks softly.

I pause before questioning, "How did you know I was talking about Lash."

Kate softly chuckles. "The girls used to think Lash was your secret lover because everything you said was either 'I remember when Lash and I . . . ' or 'Lash always . . . ' so I just assumed he was who you were talking about."

"I wasn't that bad." I defend smiling through my tears.

"Yes you were! Everything was about Lash. I could tell you two were close. I remember when I asked if we could be friends you told me and I quote 'Okay, but you can't be my best friend 'cause my best friend is Lash and we're going to be best friends forever'."

I feel myself start to cry for what seems to be the millionth time today. "So will you help me get him back. Please Kate. You know I wouldn't call you unless it was important."

There was a pause on the other end, "I can be there tomarrow morning. My aunt lives over by you and I'll just tell my family I want to go see her. You still live in the same house?"

"Yeah I say."

"Okay, don't worry. We'll find a way to get him back. Lash will be back before you know it. Well, bye!"

"Kate wait!" I stop her.

"What?" She asks.

"Thanks." I say.

Another pause. "Anything for me Speed Demon." And then a click and the line goes dead.

I lay on my bed for a few minutes before I realize I can't seem to fall asleep. I get up and go to Lash's room which is decorated in posters of rock bands and goofy pictures of the two of us. I fall back onto his unmade bed and as I drift off to sleep I think how funny it is how we find comfort sleeping in the others room.

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A/N: I like reviews . . . reviews are nice . . . reviews keep me writing . . . still add your comment on what I should do about the coupling (I was thinking about leaving him with the girl but implying slash but I aim to please my readers so be sure to put in your comments) 


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